Chandigarh February 12: While describing Haryana as a pioneer State in setting up Inter District Council (IDC) for ensuring development at the grass root level through the coordinated efforts of Panchayati Raj Insitutions (PRIs), Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal announced to delegate more powers to Zila Parishads to further empower them by allowing them to take up monitoring and other works under various schemes namely Establishment of Eco Clubs, Swaran Jayanti Programme-Cultural Programme for Students, Debates and Seminars on Harmony, National Cretche Scheme, Setting up of Bio Gas Plant, Maintenance of Building of Government Primary Schools, Scheme of Promotion of Crops diversification and Dr B.R Ambedkar Housing Navinikaran Yojana.

Mr Manohar Lal was presiding over the 2nd meeting of Inter-District Council (Rural) in Panchkula near here today. Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Dushyant Chautala who also holds the portfolio of Development and Panchayats Department was also present in the meeting.

The Chief Minister also announced that the Haryana Rural Development Authority (HRDA) would be made more effective for ensuring the planned development of rural areas. He said that , a website would be launched soon having details of all villages of the State, their population and maps adding that the villagers would be able to upload their suggestions and complaints on this website and the concerned departments would take action accordingly.

He said that the State Government is in the process of abolishing the system of Lal Dora in villages of the State. In the same series, the Sirsi village of district Karnal has been declared free from Lal Dora. He said that with this, the owner would have the lawful right of his property within in the Lal Dora and he could sell his property and also take loan on the same. Stating that the State Government is giving special emphasis on the solar energy, he said that those gram panchayats which have adequate funds available with them could set up solar power plants on the Panchayat land for generating electricity for street lighting and running tubewells.

The Chief Minister said that apart from making the Zila Parishads financially empower, the State Governent is also working towards their capacity building. He also announced that with a view to accelerate the pace of development activities, the XEN Panchayati Raj would be shifted to Zila Parishad. He would work under the direct supervision of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Zila Parishad. It may be recalled that in the last meeting of the Council, the Chief Minister had announced one JE and one SDO for each Zila Parishad in the State. It was for the first time, when nine additional posts including Taxation Officer and Project officer has been created for the Zila Parishads. Till now, the Zila Parisahds have strength of 14 officials only including 8 posts of Group-C, 4 posts of Group-D and one post each of Accountant and Clerk.

While exhorting the PRIs to generate their own sources of revenue in addition to the budget released by the state government, he said that the State Government intends to provide budget ranging from Rs 20 crore to Rs 25 crore to the Zila Parishads on the basis of population and geographical area. An amount of Rs 184 crore has been released to the Zila Parishads during the last financial year. For the next financial year, he said that all the Zila Parishads should pass their estimated budget in the House meeting one week after the State Budget is presented by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha and ensures sending the same to the government so that required budget could be sanctioned.

The Chief Minister said that each Zila Parishad in the State would constitute a special wing to monitoring the functioning of existing angwandi centres and Sub Health Centres and submit report to the department concerned. He said that 4 to 5 anganwadi centres in each district be converted into creche with better facilities. He also directed to explore the possibilities for the opening of play schools in anganwadi centres in few villages on pilot basis.

He directed the Transport Department that funds for the construction of bus queue shelters in the villages would be directly transferred to Zila Parishads instead of GM Roadways. He asked the Zila Parishads to replicate the model of bus queue shelters in Karnal adopted under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

The Chief Minister said that the aim of setting up of Inter District Council (IDC) is to make an arrangement to ensure that the benefit of government works reach to the beneficiaries at the grass root level. He said that e-system should be adopted for ensuring transparency in the system as the whole world is shifting to automization. He said that the Zila Parishads should adopt e-tendering process for the allotment of development works especially in construction of village streets and pavements. He also exhorted them to assist the government in effective implementation of various initiatives regarding environment conservation, rejuvenation of 14,000 village ponds, micro irrigation scheme, water recharging and water treatment schemes.

Earlier, a performa consisting 16 schemes of various departments that could be transferred to the Zila Parishads were distributed to the Chairman Zila Parishads for their suggestions. They could send their suggestions through concerned CEO in next 7 days that is upto February 19, 2020 so that the same could be considered while finalizing the State Budget.

Earlier speaking on this occasion, Deputy Chief Minister Mr Dushyant Chautala said that the Zila Parishads should give special focus on the development aspect. While advocating for the further strengthening of PRIs, he said that there are several big projects that could be delegated to the level of Zila Parishads. He said that concrete suggestions by the PRI representatives are must for preparing a self sustaining model. He congratulated the present State Government for taking step towards decentralization of powers by transferring the works of various departments to Zila Parishads.

Mr Dushyant Chautala said that after the State Budget in the Vidhan Sabha, all the Zila Parishads should hold meetings to discuss financial aspects and send their budgets to the Government after passing the same in their House meetings so that they could get the budget for development works. He urged the Zila Parishads and their CEOs to evolve an effective system for further empowering the PRI system in the State that could become a role model for other states in the country.

On this occasion Principal Secretary Development and Panchayats Mr Sudhir Rajpal gave a brief presentation on the steps taken on the decisions taken in the last meeting of the council. He informed that budget of Rs 652 crore is available to Zila Parishads for four schemes of rural development. He said that funds of Rs 74 crore have been released to the Zila Parishads under State Finance Commission by Panchayats Department. Additional funds of Rs 39 crore would be released to the Zila Parishads in this financial year.

In his welcome address Additional Chief Secretary Finace and Planning Mr T.V.S.N Prasad said that the vision of the State Government is to further strengthen the PRIs in the State by decentralization of powers so as to ensure delievery of maximum benefits upto the grass root level. He said that an amount of Rs 40 crore has been releaed for the construction of 11 new buildings of Zila Parishads and repair of 8 existing buildings.

Among those present in the meeting included Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr Rajesh Khullar, Director General, Swarna Jayanti Haryana Institute for Fiscal Management Mr Vikas Gupta, Chairman Zila Parishads, CEOs Zila Parishad and representatives of Panchayat Samits.